An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel (Gu), Late Shang dynasty | 商末 青銅饕餮紋觚

An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel (Gu)

Late Shang dynasty

商末 青銅饕餮紋觚

of slender proportions with a spreading lower body set over a short straight foot and rising to a cylindrical central section below a tall flaring neck, the lower body with two dissolved taotie masks in high relief against a leiwen ground divided by four vertical flanges, the central section repeating the design, the neck with a band of S-curved serpents below four tall cicada blades all patterned with leiwen

Height 10⅝ in., 27 cm